“A lot of times, we don’t take the fight to them (the opponent),” Bird said Tuesday, before the Pacers snapped a four-game losing streak by beating the Boston Celtics 94-83 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. “A lot of times we sit back and wait and see how it goes. And that was the case even when we were winning a lot of games early in the season. We’ve got to be mentally prepared to really go after the teams we’re playing again. We can’t have the mindset it’s just another game; it’s a very important game. All of them are.”

And that was before the Pacers went through a 9-9 stretch (ongoing) marredbydisarray.What does Bird think of Vogel now?

I back Frank 100 percent. There was some things early on this season, like I said, I went to him and told him that we needed to clean everything up.

Admittedly, I was intrigued by the idea of Bird replacing Vogel on the bench this late in the season. I didn’t necessarily think it would help – I believe Vogel is a good coach, and there would be an adjustment period for Bird – but it sure would have made for compelling theater.

Now, it’s too late for a change. The Pacers will almost certainly stick with Vogel, so what else is Bird supposed to say at this point?

Really, I’m interested to see whether he sticks with 100 percent if the Pacers don’t reach the NBA Finals.

I’m not saying it would’ve worked, but Hibbert would’ve probable sagged off Bosh to help inside. Bosh, of course, would’ve had an open jumpshot, but a Bosh 3 or mid range shot are somewhat better than a LeBron layup, I think.

And lets not forget that Popovich and the Spurs did the exact same thing by taking out Duncan at the end of game 6 – the Heat must provide a match up issue in that situation for 2 coaches to do almost the exact same thing.

I think the matchup issue is bosh’s ability to hit from long range. If bosh got open jumpers in eother scenario agaibst the pacers or spurs people would say “why did they leave hibbert/duncan in the game when they are too slow to close out on bosh?”

He is the same coach that turned the dumpster fire that was the Jim O’Brien “team” into the no. 1 seed in the East.
Really, he is the Head Coach of the number one team in the Eastern Conference. That is clearly impressive.

“I hate my pathetic life so I post snide comments on E-V-E-R-Y article about a team I don’t watch or have any stake in other than the fact I’m deathly afraid my favorite team will lose a playoff series to said team.”